The Family Clause
海外で暮らす祖父が、半年ごとにスウェーデンへ戻り、成人した子どもたちの生活に入り込む。息子は父との古い取り決めを終わらせたいと思い、娘は自分の人生の岐路に立たされる。家族を縛る暗黙の契約と、親子が互いに背負わせてきた傷を、軽妙さと痛みを交えて描く小説。
作品情報
家族を続けることは、過去に縛られることなのか、それともそこから別の関係を作り直すことなのか。
『The Family Clause』は、ヨナス・ハッセン・ケミーリのスウェーデン語小説『Pappaklausulen』を Alice Menzies が英訳した作品。海外に住む父が定期的に帰国し、息子の小さなアパートを滞在先にするという取り決めが、家族全員の関係を揺さぶっていく。息子の育児と仕事、娘の妊娠と選択、父の自己像と過去が交差し、家族という近さの中で見えなくなっていた痛みが浮かび上がる。
レビュー要約
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日常の細部を積み重ねながら、家族の失望や苛立ちを徐々に浮かび上がらせる構成が評価されている。語りの多さを重く感じる読者もいるが、メランコリーと滑稽さが同居する家族像には強い余韻がある。
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視点を自在に移しながら、世代をまたいで家族が一緒に立ち続けようとする姿を鋭く描く点が高く評価されている。翻訳も、原文にある機知と喪失感をよく伝えるものとして受け止められている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Farrar Straus & Giroux
- 発売日
- 2020-08-25
- ページ数
- 308ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 14.35 x 3.02 x 21.74 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780374134327
- ISBN-10
- 0374134324
- 価格
- 4920 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Women's Fiction/Domestic Life
“The son did as he was told. All his bloody life, he has done as he has been told. Time to change that, he thinks, grabbing a pen. He doesn’t write that this will be the last time his father stays here. He doesn’t write that he wants to break the father clause. Instead, he writes: Welcome, Dad. Hope you had a good flight .” A grandfather who lives abroad returns home to visit his adult children. The son is a failure. The daughter is having a baby with the wrong man. Only the grandfather is perfect—at least, according to himself. But over the course of ten intense days, relationships unfold and painful memories resurface. The grandfather is confronted by his past. The daughter is faced with an impossible choice. The son tries to write himself free. Something has to give. Per a longstanding family agreement, the grandfather has maintained his Swedish residency by coming to stay with his son every six months. Can this clause be renegotiated, or will it chain the family to its past forever? Through a series of quickly changing perspectives, in The Family Clause Jonas Hassen Khemiri evokes an intimate portrait of a chaotic and perfectly normal family, deeply wounded by the death of a child and the disappearance of a father.
Jonas Hassen Khemiri is the author of novels ( Everything I Don't Remember , Montecore ), plays ( I Call My Brothers ), and a collection of plays, essays, and short stories ( Invasion! ). Among his many honors are the August Prize, the highest literary award for Swedish literature; the Enquist Literary Prize; the Borås Tidning Award for Best Literary Debut Novel; and an Obie Award. His novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and his plays have been performed by more than one hundred companies around the world. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Alice Menzies is a freelance translator based in London. She has translated books by Fredrik Backman and Katarina Bivald, among others.
レビュー
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Good service
Book arrived promptly and in good condition. Haven't read it yet but don't expect to be disappointed.
関連する文学賞
- ナショナル・ブック賞（翻訳文学） 第3回（2020年） ・Nominee